'It's early to make big bets… we see crisis getting worse'

Sameer Al Ansari, Chief Executive of DIC (FILE)

By

Reuters

PublishedThursday, January 29, 2009

Asset prices are at very reasonable levels but it is still to early to make big bets on long-term investments as the global financial crisis will get worse, Dubai International Capital Chief Executive Sameer Al Ansari told Reuters TV yesterday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Al Ansari said the sovereign fund sees opportunities but remained nervous of markets as the financial system was "broken".

"There is going to be a great opportunity in the next year or two to acquire assets at historically unprecedented levels," Al Ansari said. "The region has to invest for the long term... choosing assets that represent good value for the region." However, he added: "We're still very nervous about making some big bets – we see the financial crisis getting worse. There's not going to be a magic wand solution to the problem."

"The system as we know it is literally broken. We have to get money flowing again, we have to get liquidity flowing again, we have to get confidence back. That's going to take time, that's going to take two, three, four years."

"In the meantime the world is going to get poorer, standards of living are going to get worse and it's not going to be pleasant." DIC, which is owned by the Government of Dubai and controls around $13 billion (Dh47.7bn) in assets, is one of the group of Gulf funds and investment vehicles to have brought stakes in top Wall Street companies.